


Love, That Loosener of Limbs

by amatalefay



Series: The Historical Girlfriends of Bill Potts [1]
Category: 6th Century BCE RPF, Classical Greece and Rome History & Literature RPF, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-31
Updated: 2017-05-31
Packaged: 2018-11-07 08:10:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11054883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amatalefay/pseuds/amatalefay
Summary: “Like,finallyhere's a poem that isn't just some bloke whining about how a beautiful girl won’t give him sex, and it's basically‘sweet mother, I’m too gay to do my chores, blame Aphrodite’. Like, honestly? Most relatable thing I’ve read in years.”Bill meets Sappho.





	Love, That Loosener of Limbs

>   _Someone, I say, will remember us in time to come._
> 
> —Sappho, Poem 147, tr. Philip Freeman

 

“Oh. My God. Oh my _God_. That’s her! That’s—that’s the original. The original lesbian, I mean proper capitalized Lesbian. The Mother Gay. Oh, God. Oh, _God_ , what am I even gonna _say_?”

The Doctor raised his eyebrows. “ _Your brother Charaxos may be under the hypnotic influence of his alien mistress_ might be a good start.”

“Can you even _imagine_ what was like to read her when I was fourteen?” Bill continued. “Like, _finally_ here's a poem that isn't just some bloke whining about how a beautiful girl won’t give him sex, and it's basically _sweet mother, I’m too gay to do my chores, blame Aphrodite_. Like, honestly? Most relatable thing I’ve read in years.”

“Bill-”

“God, what I wouldn’t give to hear that fragment completed.”

“Bill-”

“But seriously, what was up with the fragment that was just ‘soda’? Like, did it mean the same thing? Or-”

“Bill, she’s staring at you.”

And she was. Like a figure out of a painting, white chiton against dark arms, hands hovering just above the strings of her lyre, fingertips gently rested on the frame. She was biting her lower lip, and the look in her eyes was one Bill knew immediately—the panicked, exhilarated look of _an actual goddess is walking the earth, right here, right now, and holy mother of Zeus I think I'm into girls._

“Oh my God,” Bill said again, eyes wide. “ _I’m_ the original lesbian.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Charaxos's (possibly alien) mistress is Rhodopis, also known as Doricha, an enslaved courtesan whom Charaxos freed, nearly bankrupted his whole family in the process. Apparently, Sappho wrote a scathing lyrical roast of her, but only fragments survive. The 'soda' poem is fragment 189. It probably refers to calcium carbonate. Probably.
> 
> Originally posted to Tumblr [here](https://amatalefay.tumblr.com/post/161264390652/pepemclean-lesbill-gaybillpotts-an), with some minor changes in this version because I can't stop myself revising.


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